As Andhra Pradesh braces for a veritable division on June 2, it is time to decide who gets what and how much. The Government machinery, which is busy preparing for general elections to be held on April 30 and May 7 in the two regions, is simultaneously working on the nitty-gritty of apportion.

The two States will share between them 26 lakh files that deal with myriad issues in different departments. The officials have collated these files and digitised in order to make it easy for sharing.

“The two States will share 1.41 lakh agreements valued at ₹ 2.85 lakh crore in the respective geographies. While Telangana gets 62,000 agreements worth ₹ 1.88 lakh crore, the residual Andhra Pradesh gets ₹ 97,000 lakh crore worth (75,000) agreements. There will be some common agreements too,” Jairam Minister, Union Minister for Rural Development in the outgoing UPA Government, said.

The Telangana State will have a burden of Rs 500 crore in pension outgo and Rs 700 crore for the residual Andhra Pradesh. There would be 3.4 lakh pensioners in Andhra Pradesh and 2.4 lakh in Telangana.

As many as 21 committees, set up to bifurcate the assets, liabilities, water and employees, will submit their reports on April 30. “The actual process of division will begin after April 30. Some of the tasks will be completed before the appointed day June 2, while the others would happen after that,” he said.

The Minister held a meeting with Governor E S L Narasimhan and top State Government officials to take stock of the division process.

Staff sharing

About 80,000 State-level employees (local and district level employees are not to be touched) will be allocated to the two States. The Minister said the Kamalnathan Committee appointed by the Centre to take care of bifurcation will give a serious consideration to the requests made by the employees (on relocating to other State).

The two States will share among themselves on the ownership of 119 companies, organisations and enterprises.

State Capital

The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) area will be the common capital of the new State of Telangana and residual Andhra Pradesh for a period of 10 years. “The two Governments will share 85,000 square metres of plinth area of office space for the respective assemblies, Secretariats and government offices,” he said.

The Governor will take care of law and order and protection of life. The Telangana Government would advice him on these issues but he can take a call on such advice.

Water issue

With water being the most sensitive issue, the Centre has provided for three measures to address the issue, particularly in a deficit year. It appointed an Apex Council with the two Chief Ministers (of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh) as members for planning and dispute resolution.

The Thungabhadra Board had been expanded to include Telangana. As of now, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are members of the board to resolve the issues in the riparian States.

Two boards to take care of water in Krishna and Godavari basins. These boards, however, are to implement the Central tribunal awards. They will have only technical and administrative powers and not any powers to judge on waters.

The government also decided to extend the term of Brijesh Kumar panel till July 31, 2014.

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